Why Are The Military Votes Being Delivered to the Pentagon?

[demgrrrll]

I just read that instead of being delivered to each individual state that the Military votes are going to be delivered to the Pentagon. Rumsfeld said you can trust us to deliver and count the votes. Right. Does anyone have any details on this or know how this decision was made?

[rsmith6621]

1. Links Please

[Lefty48197]

2. Maybe they want to know who has returned their ballots and who hasn't

.

[punpirate]

3. No, but it's clearly contrary to accepted practice.

Absentee ballots go through the military mail system, should be postmarked by that system and should be delivered to a specific state address for tallying by election officials.

If Rumsfeld said this and you have a source for the quote, I'd recommend getting this to your state Democratic party office right away.

Cheers.

[havocmom]

4. My take is they will hold them up and see where they need votes to carry

particular states then make sure they count the ones they need.

Yes, the ballots used to go to the home precinct where neighbors of serving troops can be sure they got counted.

Sending to DOD in DC = Rumsfeld will count the ones he wants to AND he will know how individuals in the military voted. That will be real handy for his next purge of officers who know him for the scum sucking vampire he is and object to his leadership of the US military.

[asjr]

6. This really bothers me. It goes against accepted practice. Has the

FEC nothing to do with this? Our military are American citizens and should be treated no differently from other citizens. It stinks to high heaven. Emails in order to my Pub senators. They never answer but I can only try.

[faithnotgreed]

5. not long after bush took office, he was able to make rumsfeld

the head of overseas voting. i think this includes military as well as civilians.

there was a very recent flap that the govt website for those living overseas who wanted information about absentee/overseas voting was "blocked" and so people werent able to access it!
the site was eventually unblocked but only because it made it into the press

time after time, we have been shown that they will do anything.

[havocmom]

9. And mailed ballots supposed to be sent back by Oct 15! Plenty of time

for the junta to fuck over the troops after they have voted. Also found this little gem: Faxed ballots handled by Omega, which got the contract to handle the Electronic Transmission Service. Guess who the head of Omega supports?

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040916-054902-4592r.htm

<snip> The process is relatively straightforward: Overseas voters, most of them military, fax in their ballots along with a routing sheet that tells where the ballot should ultimately end up to Omega, which in January was awarded a $441,000 contract to manage the Electronic Transmission System service.

<snip> Omega employees would then look up the fax number of the local election offices designated by the absentee voter and fax the ballot on their behalf.

<snip> Omega has come under criticism by the New York Times and other media outlets for its refusal to provide the names and political affiliations of the people that will be handling the ballots. The president of the company, Patricia A. Williams, is publicly supporting President George W. Bush in his re-election bid and has donated $6,600 to his cause, according to the New York Times and federal campaign finance records.*

<snip> Brunelli told UPI there is no means of assuring that the faxed ballots are not tampered with,* other than by comparing them to the original ballot. There is an electronic audit trail of the faxed ballots, but it just confirms the date of transmission and the number of pages.

* bold face mine for emphasis

[faithnotgreed]

11. thats right - faxed ballots. may as well have teresa lepore count them!

[porphyrian]

7. The military own their minds, their asses, and their votes. - n/t

[Gman]

8. This is a serious charge... need a link, please

if this is true, it needs to get out asap.

[demgrrrll]

10. Ok here ya go

Go to the comment section on Biden
Scroll down to the post by Phoneix Woman. She has been around since 1998 maybe before. She always has good information. She has a link to a USA today story. I don't know. I can't google anything else. If she wrote it I believe it.